FLAME INVESTMENT LAB
Resources
Over the years, FLAME Investment Lab has been able to attract the most revered and noted investment minds of the country. Their candid sessions elaborating their investment experience has gone a long way in shaping the investment thought processes of the participants. Some of the investment masters include:
Amay is the co-head of the Emerging Markets Core group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, based in Singapore. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1997 and has 25 years of investment experience.
Amay received a B. Com degree from Mumbai University. He is an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Amay is an independent director on the Board of Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, which is a foreign policy think tank based in Mumbai.
Previously he was a columnist for Livemint and a visiting faculty for the MBA programme at NMIMS Mumbai. He has spoken on various forums including the CFA India Forum.
Mr. Goela is a partner at Rare Enterprises and is responsible for its research enterprises. Rare is the investment advisory firm of Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. At Rare, besides coordinating a team of analysts, Mr. Goela focuses on domestic and global macro indicators and top down research to generate trading oppurtunities across asset classes.
Mr. Bharat Shah is currently the Executive Director of ASK Group. He is a qualified rank-holding Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant and MBA (Finance) from IIM Calcutta, having topped his class in Finance. Mr. Shah has nearly 25 years experience in Indian capital markets with deep interface with the corporate world. He represents comprehensive insights in Indian capital markets (equity and fixed income) with strong emphasis on bottom-up investment philosophy. He has a considerable understanding of global businesses and stock picking is a special strength. The investment philosophy emphasizes buying quality businesses enjoying superior growth but at reasonable valuations.
Catalyst - FLAME Investment Lab
Durgesh Shah, with his degrees in Commerce, Law and a Diploma in Finance (University of Mumbai), set up Corporate Database while managing the institutional desk at ENAM. Corporate Database Pvt. Ltd. has evolved into a family office over four decades. It has worked with the most respected business media houses including Economic Times & Business Standard, rating agencies, like CRISIL and Economist Intelligence Unit, contributing market related articles and reports in the 1980s and 1990s.
Mr. EA Sundaram is currently the Executive Director at o3 Capital, Mumbai. Previously, he was the Executive Director and CIO – Equities at PGIM India Asset Management (2013-2019). His previous stints include that of Equity Fund Manager and Head of Research at Zurich Asset Management (1993-2003); Senior Fund Manager at HDFC Asset Management (2003-2008) and Portfolio Manager at M3 Investment Managers (2008-2013).
In his career spanning over 30 years, Mr. Sundaram has had vast exposure to public equity and fund management in various formats, including closed and open-ended equity funds, family office and portfolio management services. He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.
Maran is one of Unifi's co-founders and currently holds the position of Executive Director. Starting his journey in capital market in early 90s, he has worked with some of the leading names in the financial markets. He currently manages some of Unifi's key client relationships and has also been instrumental in spearheading Unifi's initiatives into niche investment strategies and new geographies. His passion for granular details about Indian economy and consumption pattern helped to develop thematic investing styles far ahead of time.
Ambassador (Retd) Gautam Bambawale is a former Indian diplomat and served as the Indian Ambassador to China from 2017 to 2018. He also served as the Indian Ambassador to Bhutan from August 2014 to December 2015 and the High Commissioner of India to Pakistan from January 2016 to November 2017. He retired in 2018 after an illustrious career spanning 34 years.
Kalpraj Dharamshi likes to call himself a perpetual student of the markets. He is currently the Managing Director of Dharamshi Securities.
He got into the stock market in 1986 after completion of C.A. articles and pending C.A. Final exams.
He found markets way more interesting than Chartered Accountancy and dropped out of C.A. He hasn’t regretted that decision since he is extremely passionate about the markets.
He stopped active broking in 2000 and has been trader/investor ever since. He got into technicals early on in his career and graduated to fundamentals later on.
Karthik Tiruvarur, based in Washington DC, leads investment in early-stage consumer technology companies for International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is the private sector focused arm of the World Bank. Through its $100bn balance sheet, IFC invests across the globe in category defining companies and Fund Managers. As part of IFC’s venture capital team, Karthik’s investment focus has been in venture-growth stage technology companies in geographies spanning India, China, Turkey and Brazil. Investments in India include consumer technology companies such as Lenskart, Bigbasket, Portea, Shadowfax technologies etc.
Kenneth is the Founder and CIO of Old Bridge Capital Management, an India-based registered PMS. He manages the investment process and leads investment ideation. Along with over 27 years of experience in Indian Capital Markets, portfolio management and investment research he has a formidable 15-year track record managing some of India's most successful equity funds.
Kuntal Shah is a value investor with three decades of experience spanning various aspects of the capital market. He is an investor turned entrepreneur with experience of having invested in all sorts of enterprises-seed, early growth, and late-stage growth. Now working on developing technology related solution to deal with unstructured streaming data and founded Needl. Ai
A Chartered Accountant and MBA from the London Business School, Manish is one of India’s most respected financial experts and investors. He is a Director at Enam Holdings, the multibillion dollar family office of the founders of Enam. He also serves on the Governing Board of Flame University, one of India’s leading liberal arts universities.
M.R. Madhavan is co-founder and president of PRS Legislative Research. His work is focussed on two related areas: strengthening the effectiveness of India’s Parliament and legislative assemblies by providing legislators with relevant research, and enabling greater citizen participation with the legislative process. Prior to PRS, Madhavan worked for a decade in financial markets research across equities, rates and currency markets at ICICI Securities in Mumbai and Bank of America in Mumbai and Singapore.
Mr. Navneet Munot is the MD and CEO - HDFC Asset Management Company Limited.
Mr. Munot has over 30 years of experience in financial markets. Before joining HDFC, he has worked with SBI Mutual Funds as Chief Investment Officer, Morgan Stanley Investment Management as executive director and head of multi-strategy boutique and Birla Sun Life Mutual Funds as CIO for fixed income and hybrid funds.
Mr. Neeraj Marathe is currently an Analyst at Sentinel Research. He is an investor based in Pune, Maharashtra. His core competency lies around investing in Indian listed companies, specifically mid-caps and small-caps, using fundamental analysis and value investing principles. He is an avid reader and reads books based on value investing, behavioral finance and psychology.
Nilesh Shah is Managing Director of Kotak AMC.
Nilesh lead his team to the Best Fund House of the Year Award at all the mutual funds where he has worked viz. Kotak, ICICI Prudential and Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund.
Nilesh is a part time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. He is a part time member of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). He is a member of the Board of Association of Mutual Funds in India and a Member of CoBoSAC committee of SEBI.
The late Mr. Parag Parikh was (and still is) a highly regarded and respected stock market veteran. Beginning his career as a stockbroker in the late 1970s, he founded Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services Private Limited in 1992, which in turn has sponsored PPFAS Mutual Fund.
He is especially renowned as a pioneer who applied the globally accepted tenets of Behavioral Finance while investing in Indian companies.
Prashant Jain was Chief Investment Officer at HDFC Mutual Fund, a leading Mutual Fund of India from 2004 to 2022. During this tenure, HDFC Mutual Fund’s assets grew from approximately Rs.3000 cr^ to approximately Rs. 4,40,000 cr. Of this approximately Rs.2,35,000 cr was in equity / equity oriented funds.
He has 31 years of investment management experience.
Prashant holds the distinction of being the only fund manager in India & one of the few globally, to have continuously managed a scheme for over 28 years. This fund, namely, HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund (earlier known as HDFC Prudence fund), a hybrid equity debt fund, delivered a CAGR of ~17.9% between Jan 1994 to July 2022 vs Sensex CAGR of ~9.6% in this period.
Mr. Prithvi Haldea, an M.B.A. (1971) from BITS, Pilani, is the Founder-Chairman of PRIME Database Group. Between 1971 and 1988, he worked at senior positions in the corporate sector in the areas of exports, software, consulting, publishing, and advertising. He was also associated with the information industry and worked as a Consultant with The World Bank and with the U.S. Department of Commerce. Since 1989, when he created PRIME Database, he has innovated several databases on one hand and worked on investor education and protection on the other.
Raamdeo Agrawal is the Chairman and Co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, a prominent financial services firm established in 1987, specialising in Indian equity capital markets and research. Raamdeo Agrawal and his business Partner Mr Motilal Oswal, spread their businesses in Retail Broking and Distribution, Institutional Equities, Asset Management Company, Private Wealth, Investment Banking, Private Equity & Home Finance.
Radhakishan Damani is a Stock market Investor, Stockbroker, Trader and the Founder of Avenue Supermarts.
His retail chain accounts for 91 stores across India and is the third biggest in the industry.
Possessing over three decades of experience in various segments of the capital markets such as investment banking, corporate finance, securities broking and fund management, he is currently the Chief Investment Officer and Director at PPFAS Mutual Fund.
His association with PPFAS Limited (The Sponsor of PPFAS Asset Management Company Ltd.) began in 2001. He was appointed the Fund Manager for the erstwhile flagship strategy of the Portfolio Management Service, titled “Cognito” in 2003.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is the Founder of Rare Enterprises. He is one of the better known equity investors in India. Mr. Jhunjhunwala belongs to a class of investors who has created wealth through careful stock selection, patience and conviction. Among India’s successful investors, Mr. Jhunjhunwala is perhaps one of the few who has shared his insight into successful investing with the people at large through his articles, interviews and presentations.
Ramesh S. Damani, age 66 years, is a Member of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). A graduate of H.R. College, Mumbai, he did his MBA from California State University, Northridge.
He has been a broker, at the BSE, since 1989.
He is Managing Director of Ramesh S. Damani Finance Pvt. Ltd.
Ridham Desai is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley with 26 years at the firm. He heads Morgan Stanley’s Indian Equity Research team which is the top ranked team in the country. He has been consistently ranked among the best equity market strategist and analyst in the country over his career spanning over three decades. He has represented Morgan Stanley in several public debates on the equity market and the economy, is a regular media contributor and authored several insightful reports. Ridham is also part of the advisory board of Project Mumbai, a not for profit engaged in the improving lives of Mumbaikars.
Mr. Sameer Koticha is the Chairman of ASK Group. Along with his brother Asit Koticha, the duo transformed a family owned business into a professionally run organization with interests in Portfolio Management of listed equities, Real Estate Fund, Private Equity Fund and Wealth Management. He has been instrumental in shaping the ASK Group into a leading Wealth Management entity.
Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer of SageOne Investment Managers, advisor to Cayman based SageOne India Growth Fund. SageOne has generated annualized return of 3.5x Nifty and 2.8x of BSE Midcap over last 6 years (since inception).
Sandeep Kothari is the founder of East Lane Capital. He has almost 3 decades of experience in the equity markets. He worked for Fidelity Investments for 18 years, where he started his career as a regional analyst and managed India dedicated portfolios for almost 15 years. Prior to Fidelity, Sandeep worked on the sell side as a consumer and pharma analyst.
Prof. Bakshi is one of India’s best-recognised professors in the field of value investing and behavioural finance. He has taught at various prestigious institutions including at MDI Gurgaon where he was elected by students as Best Professor for eleven years. At FLAME, he will not only teach in his area of expertise but also create innovative courses that will combine disciplines in the true spirit of interdisciplinarity. He is a successful practitioner of value investing in India for more than 25 years and is currently the Managing Partner at ValueQuest Capital LLP, an investment boutique which advises a few large family offices in India as well as an offshore fund.
Mr. Sanjoy Bhattacharyya is a Partner at Fortuna Capital. He has earned a PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad. He was the erstwhile Chief Investment Officer of HDFC Asset Management Company prior to which he was associated with UBS Warburg. He is a value investor with an abiding interest in behavioural finance.
Apart from investing, he has a passion for bridge and the visual arts.
Saurabh Madaan is the Founder and Managing Member of Manveen Asset Management. Prior to founding Manveen, Saurabh was the Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Markel Corporation in Virginia. He was previously a Senior Data Scientist at the Google HQ in Mountain View, California. Saurabh is also Adjunct Faculty, Finance at FLAME University in Pune. He is a Board Member and Chair of the Investment Committee for the Valentine Museum in Richmond.
Saurabh graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with an MS in Materials Science and Engineering. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, and an MS in Physics from the University of Waterloo.
Saurabh Mukherjea is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Marcellus Investment Managers. Saurabh was educated at the London School of Economics where he earned a BSc in Economics (with First Class Honours) and an MSc in Economics (with distinction in Macro & Microeconomics). In London, Saurabh was the co-founder of Clear Capital and in 2007 he was rated by the Extel Survey as one of the top small cap analysts in the UK. In India, Saurabh was rated as the leading equity strategist in 2015, 2016 and 2017 by the Asiamoney polls. Prior to setting up Marcellus, Saurabh was the CEO of Ambit Capital. Saurabh is a Founding Director of the Association of Portfolio Managers in India, a trade body. He continues to be part of multiple SEBI working groups whose role is to review and reform the rules governing portfolio management in India.
Subramanian Vivek is a Partner in Price Waterhouse & Co Bangalore LLP (PW) in India. He has 25 years of experience and has audited large Indian corporates and MNCs. Having joined PW in 2011, he has played an important role in driving digital innovation in the Audit practice through next-gen technologies like Automation, Robotics and Data Analytics. He aims to refocus the business of Audit, around the cornerstones of quality, independence, and transparency.
Capital markets and accounting advisory and risk assurance services are his other interest areas. He has served clients across diverse sectors including automotive, infrastructure, manufacturing, and IT/ITES. He has worked on large (listed) international companies with complex India GAAP and IFRS reporting matters. He has also been a speaker at many events.
Sunil Singhania, CFA, is the Founder of Abakkus Asset Management, LLP, an India-focused Asset Management Company he established in 2018. In just under Five years, Abakkus is already managing assets of almost Rs 21,000 crs. Abakkus Emerging Markets and Abakkus Growth Fund, have been rated the number 1 and number 2 AIFs over a 3-year time frame in terms of performance.
Utpal Sheth is the CEO of Rare Enterprises. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst from The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India with an All India Gold Medal in one of the final groups. He is a Cost and Works Accountant from The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Mumbai University – Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics.
Mr. Vallabh Bhanshali is a leading investment banker, investor, venture capitalist and Capital Markets expert of the country. He is the co-founder and Chairman of ENAM group. He is a Trustee of the Bombay Stock Exchange and serves on various Committees of the Stock Exchange, SEBI and other bodies. A person with diversified interests, Mr. Bhanshali has lectured throughout his career and conducted professional level seminars in the behavioral field and published several articles in professional and other magazines.
Mr. Vetri Subramaniam serves as the Chief Investment Officer at UTI Asset Management Company Limited. Vetri has nearly 28 years of work experience in equities & investment management. Prior to this, Mr. Subramaniam served as the Chief Investment Officer at Invesco Asset Management Company Private Limited. He also been associated with Motilal Oswal Securities Limited, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Limited and SSKI Investor Service Private Limited. He has also worked as an advisor to a UK Hedge fund Boyer Allan on its equity investments in India during 2003-2007.
Vishal Khandelwal is the founder of SafalNiveshak.com, an initiative to help people learn the art of value investing and behavioural finance to be able to make better investment decisions. He has 18+ years’ experience as a stock market analyst and investor, and 10+ years as an investing coach.